Udemy Skills Index: Tech most popular subject among U.S. students

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Dive Brief:

Udemy conducted its first-ever Skills Index — which used data from the online learning and teaching marketplace's top 100 paid courses to analyze trends in American skills development — and found that tech courses had the highest enrollment among its U.S. students.

The index revealed that 52% of U.S. Udemy users enroll in technology courses, with business and design filling out the top three.

A survey of 7,000 Udemy students — the majority of whom are between 25 and 34 — also showed that 73% signed up for classes on its platform in order to improve their skills. Mobile devices also reigned supreme, with over 30% of Udemy students taking their courses on a smartphone or tablet.

Dive Insight:

Given the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics's 2012 projection that employment in computer occupations will increase 22% by 2020, as well as recent pushes for increased computer science education, it's not particularly surprising that the majority of U.S. students on Udemy would choose tech courses. The most popular topics? Programming (51%), IT Administration (15%), Software (13%), and Mobile Development (12%).

Given the high number of relatively college-aged people taking these courses, this report should also serve as an indicator that they haven't received necessary skills during their education. It's not necessarily an indicator that all students should be encouraged to rush out to get a computer science degree, but perhaps a sign that it's time to add computer science/coding instruction to gen ed requirements — if not requiring it outright in high school to begin with.